We needed to go to Home Depot to get air conditioner filters. We have a friend from church who works at Home Depot so Hazel and I always take Steve's list to him and he helps us find everything Steve needs so Steve doesn't have to deal with Home Depot on a weekend. Hazel also loves to go visit our friend. I remembered seeing this pin for a doll clipboard and mistakenly thought it was sample floor tile, so we got two of those while we were there. Now the floor samples are square and did not make the perfect clipboard (I may go back for the counter sample).
While driving home Hazel commented how the square tile would make a good checkers board. She had fallen in love with the one at the American Girl Doll Store that came with the Fun and Games Table for $58. We were able to make one for free! We got a wood floor sample from Home Depot and used a printed checker board (which I will provide as a download), Mod Podge glue, red and black foam sheets and a hole punch. You could also use a 4"x4" square of cardboard instead of the floor sample.
At first I made a typical black and white checker board, but Hazel wanted a red and black one, so I made another print out and covered the black and white one. For my printable, I offer both in case you have a preference or your doll does. All I did was cut the checkerboard out and use the Mod Podge glue to stick it to the wood sample and then put a thin coat of the glue over it. I used a glossy finish because it is what I had.
Now I was going to buy buttons to be the checkers, and I stopped at Joann Fabrics yesterday to see what they had for button sizes. I didn't buy any since I wanted to figure out the size of the squares first. Then last night I was trying to think about what else we could use for buttons and I was thinking of cutting them out of paper, but that would be too thin and I thought of foam. I went to our foam supply and got a regular hole punch (I was wishing I had a slightly bigger one) and punched twelve checkers from a red sheet and a black sheet. Sorry with the lighting the black ones are hard to see on the black squares.
Finally Hazel's dolls were ready to play a game. Hazel invited Mimi over for a game.
Hazel is getting ready to make the first move.
So instead of $58 to get a checkers game we made one for free! I thought about doing a box, but decided since the board cannot fold, not to bother. For more DIY doll ideas check out:
